Just Another Kid
by Triple Six
Summary: First person story from the POV of a young street girl, who, escaping from her former life, stumbles across the treehouse and it's deadly inhabitants. But in the midst of it all, she is just another kid.
1. A New World

Disclaimer: I own Kenji Hakaki. No stealing!  
  
~  
  
It was a sunny day when I met the Kids Next Door, if I recall rightly. I had just finished an argument with Tanner, Priye's older brother. Oh, I am sorry. I forget that you don't know who these people are. Priye's my friend, part of the Harley family, though I don't see her very often. She lives in one of those mobile homes on the edge of the city, while I'm just in a box in the centre. Her brother Tanner is forever trying to sell me drugs. I don't know why.  
  
Here I go again, off on a tangent. Never trust me to make a report, that's what they always say. You won't know where I start or where I finish. I suppose I should start with the basics. My name is Kenji Hakaki. I'm a street kid from the centre of the city. I'm amazed no one has taken advantage of me before, as has happened to so many other unfortunate girls. Maybe it's because I dress like a boy. They can't know the difference...  
  
Before I met the guys from the Kids Next Door, I didn't know what trees were, and grass was like a phenomenon to me. For as long as I remember I'm lived in my box, occasionally selling newspapers for some extra dough. It's a tough life.  
  
Tanner had again tried to force me to sell drugs for him. If he had resorted to brute strength, I would not have had a chance. He is so much taller than me, and stronger too. I do have one advantage, however. Someone from my gene pool must have been quite speedy, as I can outrun Tanner straight, which is what I did.  
  
I ran out of the alleyway, hoping that Tanner wasn't following. He knew the winding labyrinth much better than I, and could easily push me into a corner. Through fluke, however, I turned down the street that would take me to the suburbs.  
  
The suburbs are a whole new world to me, as I soon found out on this particular sunny day. I dashed out of the alley, barely taking in the natural wonders all around me. Never before in my life had I seen so much green! I took a right, a left, another right and found myself approaching a colossal treehouse.  
  
I stopped and looked at the summit in wonder. It was easily 70 storeys high, possibly 100. An F-14 aeroplane tail stuck out of one of the walls, as did many other strange devices.  
  
As I craned my head back to get a better look at the house, I was glad for the rest. I was sure I had lost Tanner in the maze of streets. I could take it easy for a while.  
  
I began a leisurely walk towards the treehouse, determined to know more about it. I walked twice round the base, a seemingly normal suburban house with the tree bursting through the roof, and I stepped back to assess the height. I turned round and came face to face with the barrel of a gun.  
  
After getting over my instinctive shock by swallowing, I dragged my gaze upward from the gun to the face of the one who held it. What I didn't expect was five different people, all with a weapon trained at my face.  
  
None of the five caught my eye as much as the one closest to me. He was dressed in red, with dark shades covering his eyes and a glare to go with his gun. I felt my heart go out to him straight away, and knew I would never get over this boy in my entire life.  
  
With a second glance I realised the gun this living wonder had trained on me was not real. It was a strange homemade device, though I still did not doubt it's potency. The confidence all five expressed showed that these apparently crude weapons would be enough to cause me considerable damage.  
  
I backed up against the wall, scanning my surroundings for all possible escape routes, but I had to hand it to them. They had me well and truly trapped.  
  
"Who are you and what are you planning?" The kid in red said. I was completely confused.  
  
"I – my name's Kenji, but I wasn't planning anything!"  
  
"Oh, don't be ridiculous!" He snapped. "No one comes and looks our treehouse round at all angles unless they're planning something!" He lowered his weapon, though the others did not.  
  
"Keep him in your sights, team. If he makes one false move, give him everything you've got." He told them confidently. Full of adrenaline as I was, I snapped.  
  
"I'm a girl, for crud's sake! Can you not see that? Do I really look like a boy? I am a damned girl! Get it into your thick heads!"  
  
I realised instantly my mistake, expecting them to fire at me any moment, but the leader (as he must surely be) seemed taken aback, and the others didn't fire without an order. I smiled slightly, remembering for the first time the small knife in my back pocket that I had once stolen from Tanner. I slipped it out from my pocket and clutched the blade carefully in my hand, concealing the thing up my long sleeve.  
  
"What should we do with... her, Numbuh One?" A short boy with a mop of blonde hair asked the wonder boy.  
  
'Numbuh One' walked slowly behind me, studying me through calculating eyes as though assessing whether I was a danger or not.  
  
But he didn't know about the knife.  
  
He put a hand on my shoulder and that was when I struck! I slashed wildly at his hand with my small blade. He reeled away, doubled over with pain, blood streaming down from the multiple wounds I had inflicted.  
  
For a moment I was horrified at what I had done. He hadn't really been a threat, why had I acted so irrationally? But my resolve hardened when I saw the others, still with their queer weapons trained on me.  
  
The short blonde boy fired first. The energy beam shooting from his weapon was slow, and I easily dodged it. Inwardly, I smirked. My dodge had again taken me closer to 'Numbuh One', who was looking in frozen horror at his own mutilated hand.  
  
With two deft actions, I grabbed the boy and held my knife to his throat. All action around me froze, though he himself was not struggling or showing any signs of recognition to his dangerous position.  
  
My conscience was telling me that I had done the wrong thing, and I was now breaking the law by threatening to actually murder an innocent kid. I swallowed and tried not to let my fear show. I wanted them to think I was a heartless killer. Maybe then they'd let me go.  
  
"Look, you little bunch of dweebs. I'm going to count to three, and if you aint all standin' with your hands on your heads and your weapons on the floor then your little buddy here," I indicated my captive, "will not only have a bleeding hand to worry about, savvy?"  
  
I looked around at the rebellious yet scared faces.  
  
"One," I began. No one moved. "Two. I'm warning you."  
  
There was a slight growl issued from the four kids, though I could not tell from which one it came.  
  
"Three."  
  
I pressed the blade slightly into 'Numbuh One's' throat. He whimpered uncomfortably as the blood trickled down in a steady stream, trying not to swallow unless the blade cut him deeper.  
  
There was a sudden flurry of action as all of the others, seeing that I was serious, raised their hands to their heads. I smirked.  
  
I removed my knife from the boy's throat and he collapsed in relief, sobbing slightly as the stunning reality of the recent events caught up with him and he fell into a state of shock, still bleeding slightly from the neck and heavily from his torn hand.  
  
I began to run, though I could not have got more than fifty paces before a shot from one of those guns hit me on the right side. My knife went skittering away across the floor as I fell, and I realised my mistake.  
  
*Stupid!* I thought to myself. *You should have kept a hold on the boy! You should have threatened him until you were far enough away from them to make a run for it!*  
  
Another shot it my legs and felt an awful feeling of paralysis creep up them. As the third shot hit me my last thought was for the brave leader.  
  
*I would not have killed you... never you...*  
  
I sunk into the swirling mists of blackness, shots still hitting my useless body. 


	2. Trials and Traumas

Note: Hi, it's me, Numbuh One. Kenji has agreed to let me take over her narrative in times when she is otherwise indisposed, and also so I can give our account of what happened. Things are so much more interesting in a different viewpoint, huh?  
  
~  
  
I watched as my team carried the limp body to a suitable confining area, trying to ignore the fiery lances of pain that shot through my injured hand. The strange girl had done a good job with her small blade; she had cut through the tendons that held my muscle to the bone. My hand hung limp and dead at my side, wrapped in a thin bandage to staunch the blood flow.  
  
With my good hand I gently fingered my neck. Although the cut wasn't that deep, it still hurt as much as my other injuries, possibly more. I studied the knife carefully, lost in thought.  
  
I had underestimated my foe. I had thought she would be easy to control, especially when I saw the looks of fear cross her face. However, I had forgotten the fact that she was an urban girl, and more likely to take drastic actions to get herself out of a tight fix.  
  
I had to bite my lip to stop myself screaming out loud because of the sudden flare of pain from my hand. It would not do for the rest of the team to see that the attack had really got to me. In reality, I was scared. My confidence was waning again, and I knew that I would always have a lingering paranoia about blades for the rest of my life. You don't understand until you actually have been stabbed how traumatising it is...  
  
I frowned slightly to myself. When the girl had held me at the knifepoint, I had been able to sense her movements much better than the others, who were further away. There was something that had been bothering me, just before the point she applied pressure to the blade while it was at my throat.  
  
Suddenly it hit me. The girl had hesitated just before stabbing me. That was what struck me as odd. She was actually afraid to use the knife! Again I studied the blade. I had asked Numbuh Five to clean it so that it was not stained with my blood, and now it looked so innocent. I could hardly believe that this small, glistening object had, and still was causing me such pain.  
  
I wandered down to the small room where our captive was now being kept and looked her over. She was about my height, with very strange hair indeed. It was blonde, not dyed, but the bottoms were tipped black for some reason. She was wearing torn jeans, a pale green t-shirt and over that a light blue shirt, finished off with motorcycle gloves (the fingerless ones). She looked for all the world like a boy.  
  
My hand unexpectedly flared with pain again and, being caught off guard, I whimpered. Numbuh Two, who had been walking past, stopped and approached me.  
  
"Are you ok, Numbuh One?" He asked. I nodded, trying to clench my teeth and talk at the same time.  
  
"I'm ok."  
  
"What do you want doing with that?" My friend inclined his head towards the unconscious girl. "It won't wake up for a while. We hit it with everything we had."  
  
I inwardly frowned at Numbuh Two's insistence of not giving the girl a gender.  
  
"Leave her there until she comes round. Post a guard. We'll interrogate her later."  
  
Numbuh Two nodded.  
  
"Right. Who on guard duty first?"  
  
"Whoever. I don't really mind." I replied. I was beginning to feel a prickling feeling behind my eyes and knew I had to get somewhere private. It would definitely not do for my team to see me crying.  
  
Then Numbuh Two saw my hand. I had so far shielded it from the rest of the group, saying it wasn't much, just a graze. But now my friend had seen my useless, dead hand hanging limply by my side.  
  
"Your hand's looking pretty bad, Numbuh One. Are you sure it's ok?" He asked, genuinely concerned. I tried to avoid swallowing, as it hurt my injured throat.  
  
"I told you before, Numbuh Two. I'm ok. It's nothing much." I blinked, all too aware that the prickling feeling was growing stronger and more urgent. I took another glance at the girl in the cell, before turning back to my teammate.  
  
"If you don't mind, Numbuh Two, I have some rather urgent business to be getting on with."  
  
"Go ahead. I'll take first guard."  
  
I walked swiftly off, glad to be alone again, free to cry if my body felt the need. A single tear fought its way down my cheek. I brushed it away with my good hand, keeping my head bowed.  
  
"Hmm. I thought you were lyin' to us, man!" Came a voice from in front of me. In my haste and not looking where I was going, I had failed to notice that I was not alone.  
  
I was shocked, though the tears were now running freely and I could by no means stop them.  
  
"Go away, Numbuh Five." I choked. "I don't want you to see me like this."  
  
She shook her head sadly.  
  
"Why did you tell us you were ok, Numbuh One? Any fool can see you aint! Now, why don't yew tell ol' Numbuh Five wot's wrong?"  
  
"I... it's nothing, Numbuh Five."  
  
She raised an eyebrow as the tears continued to spill unchecked.  
  
"Don't beat yerself up, Numbuh One. You're stronger than any of the rest of us. Yew don't need ter prove it, we already know. We don't think you're weak just cause yer get upset sometimes. Ever'body cries."  
  
She walked slowly away down the corridor, and I swear that in those moments afterwards I smiled for the first time in hours.  
  
This was why I had my team and my team had me. 


End file.
